Various types of fasteners including, for example, bolts/nuts, metal clips, plastic clips or the like may be utilized to secure a plastic part to a substrate such as a sheet metal part. Significantly, every added fastener increases the part cost and weight of the assembly. More specifically, fastener usage requires additional operations at the assembly plant or at the plastic part manufacturer and every additional operation increases the required manpower, process cost and production time. In addition, each fastener has a risk of producing squeaks and rattles. Further, added, separate fasteners have the risk of being missing or mismatched during assembly.
This document relates to a new and improved spring clip with three cantilevered bars and an integral 4-way locator. The resulting “spider” spring clip advantageously provides a more efficient means of attachment that meets pull force requirements similar to heat staking while eliminating the necessity of the welding process associated with heat staking and thereby reducing manufacturing costs and time process. The 4-way locator provides extra stiffness to the spring clip and the three cantilevered bars provide a robust and strong joint between parts that virtually eliminates the risk of squeaks and rattles.
Advantageously, the new and improved spring clip may be molded directly into the plastic part and advantageously only requires low insertion efforts while the spring clip locates, locks and retains in a single snapping action.